Surah 101. Al-Qariah

OH, the sudden calamity!¹

  - Mohammad Asad

I.e., the coming of the Last Hour, which will involve a terrifying transformation of the world (see note [63] on 14:48 and note [90] on {20:105-107}).

The Qariah!

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

The Striking Disaster!

  - Mustafa Khattab

The Calamity!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

The (Day) of Noise and Clamor: ⁶²⁵¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The Day of Noise and Clamour is the Day of Judgment, when the whole of the present order of things will be overthrown with a tremendous convulsion. Cf. n. 6235 to xcix. 1, and n. 6096 to lxxxviii. All our present landmarks will be lost. It will be a stunning experience to begin with, but it will inaugurate a new world of true and permanent values, in which every human deed will have its true and just consequences, as if weighed in the balance. See verses 6-11 below.

How awesome the sudden calamity!

  - Mohammad Asad

What is the Qariah?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

What is the Striking Disaster?

  - Mustafa Khattab

What is the Calamity?

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

What is the (Day) of Noise and Clamor?

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

And what could make thee conceive what that sudden calamity will be?

  - Mohammad Asad

And what will explain to you what the Qariah is?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And what will make you realize what the Striking Disaster is?

  - Mustafa Khattab

Ah, what will convey unto thee what the calamity is!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And what will explain to thee what the (Day) of Noise and Clamor is?

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

[It will occur] on the Day when men will be like moths swarming in confusion,

  - Mohammad Asad

It is that Day when men shall be like scattered moths

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

'It is' the Day people will be like scattered moths,

  - Mustafa Khattab

A day wherein mankind will be as thickly scattered moths

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

(It is) a Day whereon Men will be like moths Scattered about ⁶²⁵²

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Moths are frail light things. To see them scattered about in a violent storm gives some idea of the confusion, distress, and helplessness in which men will be at first overwhelmed on the Day of Account. Old memories will be like a book almost blotted out. New hopes will be vague in a new world just rising on the horizon. But it will be a perfectly just world, and no good action will be lost and no evil one but will have its compensating value estimated.

and the mountains will be like fluffy tufts of wool....

  - Mohammad Asad

and the mountains like colorful carded wool.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

and the mountains will be like carded wool.

  - Mustafa Khattab

And the mountains will become as carded wool.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And the mountains will be like carded wool. ⁶²⁵³

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Cf. n. 5682 to lxx 9. The mountains are solid things, which seem as if nothing could move them. But in that tremendous cataclysm they will be scattered about like flakes of leased or carded wool. This is a metaphor to show that what we consider very substantial in this life will be as an airy nothing in the next world.

And then, he whose weight [of good deeds] is heavy in the balance

  - Mohammad Asad

On that Day, he whose scale of good deeds is heavy,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

So as for those whose scale is heavy 'with good deeds',

  - Mustafa Khattab

Then, as for him whose scales are heavy (with good works),

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Then he whose balance (of good deeds) will be (found) heavy ⁶²⁵⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The Good Deeds will be weighed and appraised. This appraisement will be of the nicest and justest kind: for it will take into account motives, temptations, provocations, surrounding conditions, antecedents, subsequent amends, and all possible connected circumstances. Against them, presumably, will be deeds of the opposite kind, appraised in the same way. If the good predominates, the judgment will be in the man's favour, and he will be ushered into a life of good pleasure and satisfaction. This will of course be on another plane.

shall find himself in a happy state of life;

  - Mohammad Asad

shall live a pleasant luxurious life.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

they will be in a life of bliss.

  - Mustafa Khattab

He will live a pleasant life.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Will be in a life of good pleasure and satisfaction. ⁶²⁵⁵

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Cf. xcviii. 8, and n. 6233, but perhaps the Bliss is not of the same grade for all men. In every case it is bliss, but bliss suited to the particular nature of the individual concerned.

whereas he whose weight is light in the balance

  - Mohammad Asad

But he whose scale of good deeds is light

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And as for those whose scale is light,

  - Mustafa Khattab

But as for him whose scales are light,

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

But he whose balance (of good deeds) will be (found) light

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

shall be engulfed by an abyss.²

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "his mother [i.e., goal] will be an abyss", sc., of suffering and despair. The term "mother" (umm) is used idiomatically to denote something that embraces or enfolds.

shall abode in Haviah;

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

their home will be the abyss.

  - Mustafa Khattab

The Bereft and Hungry One will be his mother.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Will have his home in a (bottomless) pit. ⁶²⁵⁶

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Just as grades of bliss are indicated for the righteous, so apparently we are to understand grades of punishment suited to the sins of the individual sinners concerned.

And what could make thee conceive what that [abyss] will be?

  - Mohammad Asad

and what will explain to you, what it (Haviah) is?

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And what will make you realize what that is?

  - Mustafa Khattab

Ah, what will convey unto thee what she is!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And what will explain to thee what this is?

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

A fire hotly burning!³

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "hot fire", the adjective meant to stress the essential quality of fire. It should be borne in mind that all Qur'anic descriptions of the sinner's suffering in the hereafter are metaphors or allegories relating to situations and conditions which can be understood only by means of comparisons with physical phenomena lying within the range of human experience (see Appendix I).

It is a blazing fire.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

'It is' a scorching Fire.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Raging fire.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

(It is) a Fire Blazing fiercely!

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali